Coin box guard device



g- 15, 1967 M. R. HUTCHINS 3,335,945

COIN BOX GUARD DEVICE Filed June 9, 1966 IN VENTOR. 41484 #41 8 1907019706 fwrt ATTIOE/VEW United States Patent 3,335,945 COIN BOX GUARD DEVICE Marlyn R. Hutchins, Minneapolis, Minn., assignor to Coin Security Systems, Inc., Minneapolis, Minn., a corporation of Minnesota Filed June 9, 1966, Ser. No. 556,407 8 Claims. (Cl. 232-1) This invention relates to coin-operated meters. More particularly, it relates to a guard device for protecting the coin box of such meters from vandals and the like.

Coin-operated meters are commonly used in conjunction with self-service washers, dryers, amusement, and vending machines and other devices which are offered to the public for operation at a profit. The locations of many of these machines are such as to make it difiicult for law enforcement personnel to adequately supervise their operation and as a consequence the operators of such businesses frequently find that they have been the victims of vandalism. This is true because of the conventional coin-operated meter is not constructed of sufficiently rugged material to prevent vandals from gaining ready access to the contents of the coin box through the use of simple tools such as pinch bars, vise-grips, screwdrivers, etc. For example, the lock which holds the coin box within the housing of the coin-operated meter is most generally sprung through the use of a vise-grip which is utilized to bend the relatively thin housing edges outwardly and thereby provide ready access for a pinch bar to be inserted to spring the lock. The upper edge of the coin box is particularly vulnerable to the use of a simple screwdriver to bend the edge outwardly sufficiently far to enable a pinch bar to be inserted and spring the lock. My invention is designed to overcome these disadvantage of the conventional coin-operated meter.

It is a general object of my invention to provide a novel and improved coin box guard which is adapted to be readily secured to the conventional coin box housing in such a position as to preclude ready access to the edge portions of the coin box and its surrounding housing and thereby prevent vandalism.

A more specific object is to provide a coin box guard device manufactured of relatively heavy plate metal and constructed and arranged so as to reinforce and extend beyond the otherwise vulnerable edges of the housing and to extend outwardly therebeyond and beyond the coin box to prevent ready access to such edges and thereby prevent vandals from gaining access to the interior of the coin box.

These and other objects and advantages of my invention will more fully appear from the following description, made in connection with the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference characters refer to the same or similar parts throughout the several views, and in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an automatic laundry machine having a coin-operated meter equipped with the coin box guard device comprising this invention;

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary perspective View of the meter on an enlarged scale with the guard device shown in solid lines and the meter housing shown in broken lines;

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary side elevational view of the housing and coin box guard device with portions thereof broken away and shown in sections to more adequately explain the device and its functions.

One of my coin box guard devices in its preferred form is shown in FIGS. 13 and identified by the numeral 5, As shown in FIG. 1, it is adapted to be fixedly mounted upon the housing 6 of the coin-operated meter which includes a coin moving slide 7 and a coin box 15. The latter is conventionally locked in position by means of a lock 9 which extends the length of the coin box and is 3,335,945 Patented Aug. 15, 1967 secured to the back wall of the housing in a conventional manner which is not shown. The housing 6 is mounted upon the side of the coin-operated machine 10, in this case an automatic laundry machine.

The housing 6 as clearly shown in the figures has a pair of side walls 11 and 12, a top wall 13 and a front wall 14. Slidably received within the front wall 14 is the coin box 15. It will be noted that the side walls 11 and 12 and the top wall 13 have forward edges which extend forwardly beyond the front wall 14 and the coin box 15. It is these forwardly extending side edges which are most frequently attacked by vandals through the use of a visegrip by bending them outwardly and thereby providing access for the vandal to the coin box through the use of a pinch bar or similar device. My guard device protects the coin box in such a way that such vandalism is rendered substantially impossible.

As best shown in FIG. 2, my coin box guard device is comprised of an inverted U-shaped member 16 which is formed throughout of heavy plate metal material, preferably about one-fourth inch thickness. As shown, the inverted U-shaped member 16 is characterized by a pair of vertically extending legs 17 and 18 which are laterally spaced and are fixedly connected by a horizontal transversely extending top wall 19. It will be noted that the horizontal top wall 19 extends between the forward and upper edges of the two vertical legs 17 and 18 and is disposed in a plane immediately above the upper edges of these legs. The two legs 17 and 18 both extend rearwardly a substantial distance beyond the rearward edge 20 of the top wall 19 and are adapted as at 21 to receive pop rivets such as 22 therein to secure the same in guarding position upon the housing 6. It will be noted that the rear edge 20 of the top wall 19 is provided with a pair of laterally spaced slots 23 and 24. These slots are adapted to receive the forwardly extending side walls 11 and 12 of the housing therein to provide greater rigidity and strength to the housing once the guard device 5 has been applied or attached thereto as shown.

It will be noted that the two legs 17 and 18 each extend forwardly beyond the forward edges 11 and 12 of the housing, a substantial distance. This fact plus the fact that the device is made of heavy plate metal material precludes any successful attack upon the housing through the use of vise-grips or the like. There is no way that a vandal can obtain a sufiicient grip on the forward edges 11 and 12 to deform them sufliciently to gain access to the edges of the coin box 15 when the legs 17 and 18 and the top wall 19 are positioned as shown. It will be noted that the top wall 19 extends forwardly from the housing and immediately above the upper edge of the coin box 15. This precludes the vandal from attacking the upper edge of the coin box with a screwdriver or the like sufficiently to provide an adequate opening for a wrecking or pinch bar to spring the lock which holds the coin box in place.

From the above it can be seen that I provided a novel and improved coin box guard device which most adequately protects the coin box from the action of vandalism since it is impossible for the vandal to gain suflicient access to the edges surrounding the coin box to enable him to successfully apply a tool of sufiicient strength to spring the lock. The forwardly extending plate member 19 in cooperation with the'forwardly extending side legs 17 and 18 discourages the vandals to such an extent that a machine provided with such a device is relatively safe from such acts of vandalism. The structure is such that even if a vandal were tempted to attack a coin box equipped with such a guard device, the time involved in gaining access, if it were possible, would be such as to make it extremely dangerous for the vandal to accomplish his mission. In this connection, it will be noted that the success of such acts of vandalism are particularly dependent upon the vandal being able to strike and leave the scene of his illegal act within a relatively short period of time.

It will, of course, be understood that various changes may be made in the form, details, arrangement and proportions of the parts without departing from the scope of my invention which consists of the matter shown and described herein and set forth in the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. In combination a coin-operated meter including a housing having spaced side walls, a top wall and a front wall, a coin box releasably locked to a portion of the housing and slidable through an opening in said front wall, coin transporting slide means mounted on said front wall above said coin box for carrying coins from a position outside said front wall into said coin box, a heavy inverted U-shaped plate member positioned about said housing, said strap member having flat legs positioned adjacent the outside of the spaced side walls and a top wall secured to the upper ends of said legs and extending transversely therebetween in front of said housing above said coin box and below said slide means forming a protective guard for the coin box, and fastening means for securing said legs to the housing side walls.

2. The structure defined in claim 1 wherein said top wall of said plate member extends horizontally forwardly from said housing immediately above said coin box forming a protective guard for the coin box against vandalism.

3. The structure defined in claim 1 wherein said legs of said inverted U-shaped member extend rearwardly from its said top wall and alongside said housing side walls and are fixedly secured to said side walls.

4. The structure defined in claim 1 wherein the side walls of said housing extend forwardly beyond said coin box and said top wall of said U-shaped member has rearward edge portions having laterally spaced recesses formed therein into which said side walls extend.

5. A coin box guard device attached to a coin-operated meter having a housing with spaced side walls and a front wall with a coin box releasably locked therein, said device comprising:

(a) an inverted U-shaped member formed of heavy 5 plate metal throughout,

(b) said member having a pair of laterally spaced vertically extending legs,

(c) said member having a horizontally extendin top wall extending between and fixedly secured to upper and forward portions of said legs,

(d) said legs of said member extending rearwardly from said horizontal top wall and being fixedly secured to the side walls of such a housing with said top wall extending frowardly and immediately above its coin box to form a protection shield for the latter.

6. The structure defined in claim 5 wherein the front edge of said top wall terminates flush with the forward ends of said legs and the rear edge of said top wall terminates a substantial distance forwardly of the rear ends of 20 said legs.

7. The structure defined in claim 5 wherein said top wall extends in a horizontal plane above the upper edges of said legs and its rear edge terminates a substantial distance ahead of the rear ends of said legs.

8. The structure defined in claim 5 wherein said top wall has a rear edge extending between said legs in which a pair of laterally spaced narrow slots is formed, said slots receiving the side walls of such a housing therein when the device is attached thereto.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,048,774 12/1912 Whittam 232-4 r 2,716,882 9/1955 Gill et al. -s7 3,175,759 3/1965 Teal at al. 232-1 3,297,123 1/1967 Hutchins 194-97 FRANCIS K. ZUGEL, Primary Examiner. 

1. IN COMBINATION A COIN-OPERATED METER INCLUDING A HOUSING HAVING SPACED SIDE WALLS, A TOP WALL AND A FRONT WALL, A COIN BOX RELEASABLY LOCKED TO A PORTION OF THE HOUSING AND SLIDABLE THROUGH AN OPENING IN SAID FRONT WALL, COIN TRANSPORTING SLIDE MEANS MOUNTED ON SAID FRONT WALL, ABOVE SAID COIN BOX FOR CARRYING COINS FROM A POSITION OUTSIDE SAID FRONT WALL INTO SAID COIN BOX, A HEAVY INVERTED U-SHAPED PLATE MEMBER POSITIONED ABOUT SAID HOUSING, SAID STRAP MEMBER HAVING FLAT LEGS POSITIONED ADJACENT THE OUTSIDE OF THE SPACED SIDE WALLS AND A TOP WALL SECURED TO THE UPPER ENDS OF SAID LEGS AND EXTENDING TRANSVERSELY THEREBETWEEN IN FRONT OF SAID HOUSING ABOVE SAID COIN BOX AND BELOW SAID SLIDE MEANS FORMING A PROTECTIVE GUARD FOR THE COIN BOX, AND FASTENING MEANS FOR SECURING SAID LEGS TO THE HOUSING SIDE WALLS. 